Professors and public employees of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, a state in northeast Brazil, in a demonstration during the strike they have been holding since March. The state capital, Natal, is one of the 12 cities hosting the FIFA World Cup. Credit: Fabíola Ortiz/IPS

By Fabíola Ortiz
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 26 2014 (IPS)

As the FIFA World Cup approaches, the streets of Brazil are heating up with strikes and demonstrations, and there are worries that the social unrest could escalate into a wave of protests similar to the ones that shook the country in June 2013.

Groups of public and private sector workers have been on strike for days, creating a hectic backdrop for the Jun. 12-Jul. 13 global football championship.

In the southern city of São Paulo a strike by bus drivers last week generated the worst traffic jams in the history of the city. And on May 21, some 8,000 police marched to the esplanade of ministries in the capital Brasilia, in a protest supported by the federal and military police forces.

In the 12 cities that will host the World Cup matches, at least 15 protests are scheduled for the event’s opening day.

Trade unions are taking advantage of the spotlight on Brazil to pressure the centre-left government of Dilma Rousseff to meet their demands.

Even workers in over a dozen Brazilian consulates in the United States and Europe, responsible for issuing visas to those interested in flying to Brazil for the sporting event, went on strike last week.

And staff at LATAM airlines – the region’s largest carrier, formed by the merger of Brazil’s Tam and Chile’s Lan – threatened a strike or slowdown that could bring airports to a halt and disrupt hundreds of international flights during the World Cup.

Professors at 90 percent of the country’s federal and state universities and teachers at state and municipal primary schools across the country have also gone on strike, while many public cultural foundations and museums have closed their doors.

“A general strike hasn’t been ruled out,” Sergio Ronaldo da Silva, secretary general of the main federal workers’ union, CONDSEF, told IPS.

“This isn’t all happening because of the World Cup,” he said. “We had been talking for a long time about going on strike. Our complaints aren’t connected to the championship – they are demands we have been voicing for years.”

If the situation remains unchanged, this country of 200 million people could grind to a halt during the World Cup, Ronaldo da Silva admitted, after pointing out that the authorities have not set a date for negotiations. He added that as the opening match approaches, relations could become even more tense.

“The federal government should have foreseen this scenario,” the trade unionist said. “They want to show the image of Brazil as a first world country, but our health system is almost broken down, and the same thing is true of education and public transport.”

CONDSEF represents around 80 percent of Brazil’s 1.3 million federal public employees.

“On May 30 we’re going to discuss the possibility of a general strike, in our confederation. The government has been hearing the message since last June’s protests,” Ronaldo da Silva said.“The government generated an exaggerated sense of expectation among the public, which has fallen flat. It promised a lot and has delivered very little. The outlook has changed and the protests are a reflection of those changes.” -- Pedro Trengrouse

In late 2013, the government signed more than 140 labour agreements with a number of different trade unions, pledging – among other things – a 15.8 percent raise, to be paid in three annual quotas.

But at that time, the projected inflation rate was much lower than today’s rate of 26 percent, the unions complain. “Of the agreements that were signed, 70 percent are not being fulfilled,” said Ronaldo da Silva.

Another problem facing the public sector is the exodus of public employees. In the latest recruitment process, in 2011, 240,000 were hired – and nearly half have already left their jobs, according to CONDSEF.

Since February 2012, legislators have been discussing proposals for preventing strikes during the World Cup. Draft law 728/2011, currently under debate in the Senate, would limit strikes ahead of and during the global sporting event.

Under the bill, unions organising a strike would have to announce it 15 days ahead of time, and 70 percent of workers would have to remain on the job.

And in February the government introduced a bill to limit protests and strikes, but there are doubts that it will be approved in the next few days.

Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo said strikes, demonstrations or other measures should not create chaos and disorder or generate economic damage or violence.

“The police, who serve the constitution, know that strikes are prohibited by Supreme Court rulings,” he said. “We can use the national security forces and the armed forces to guarantee law and order,” he added, to reassure the public.

On May 13, Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo predicted that the World Cup would be a peaceful time of public celebration.

“If protests occur, they’ll be isolated incidents,” he said. “I believe the country is ready because Brazil’s legislation protects peaceful demonstrations and prevents violent protests. I don’t think there are many people interested in seeing the World Cup turn chaotic because of violent protests.”

“I think we’re prepared, that public security is going to work. The safety of visitors and guests is assured. There is no risk,” he maintained.

But Pedro Trengrouse, a member of the Brazilian Lawyers Institute who specialises in sports law, said there is a climate of frustration that is very different from the initial enthusiastic reception of the 2009 announcement that Brazil would host the World Cup.

“The government generated an exaggerated sense of expectation among the public, which has fallen flat. It promised a lot and has delivered very little. The outlook has changed and the protests are a reflection of those changes,” Trengrouse told IPS.

When Brazil was selected as the host of the 2014 World Cup, no one was thinking about protests, he pointed out, because 80 percent of the population at the time supported Brazil’s bid for hosting the event, according to opinion polls.

Today, however, 55 percent of respondents say the World Cup is likely to bring the country more problems than benefits.

In 2008 and 2009, Trengrouse worked as a United Nations consultant in the service of the Brazilian government for legislative affairs related to sports, especially the World Cup.

The lawyer said the government associated the World Cup with the major structural transformations that Brazil needed, but that they would have had to be carried out with or without the mega sports event.

And in two years time, Rio de Janeiro will also host the 2016 summer Olympics.

“A balance must be struck,” Trengrouse said. “The workers’ right to strike for better conditions is inalienable. But strikes must not hurt the public. There is opportunism in some sectors. Protests cannot be allowed to give rise to criminal activities, vandalism and fascist rallies.”

Poster calling people to join the general strike against “exploitation and poverty” in Portugal. Credit: Mario Queiroz/IPS

By Inés Benítez
MÁLAGA, Spain , Nov 13 2012 (IPS)

Out-of-work engineers, family businesses that are falling apart, people working in precarious conditions in an ailing labour market – it’s a description of Spain, but it could just as easily be Portugal, Greece or Italy…

“Our consumption levels have gone way down, we’re choosier about what we eat, and we look for sales,” Esperanza tells IPS in response to a question about how her life has changed as her family’s income has shrunk in the last few years.

Esperanza is a geriatric nurse with 13 years of work experience. She and her husband Antonio, an emergency room nurse, have seen their incomes cut nearly in half. They have two children, ages two and seven.

Antonio is out-of-work and will receive unemployment benefits for eight months. “We went from earning 4,000 euros (5,000 dollars) between the two of us to around 2,000 euros (2,500 dollars),” says Esperanza, who works at the Regional Centre for Blood Transfusions in the southern Spanish city of Málaga.

They are thinking about moving to Germany, to earn “decent salaries”.

In Spain, 35 percent of workers earn the minimum wage, 641 euros (814 dollars) a month, or less. And 40 percent of self-employed people are at risk of falling into poverty, according to a study by the Fundación Primero de Mayo, a local foundation, which warns about the growing impoverishment of working-class families.

Esperanza wanted to join the general strike called for Wednesday Nov. 14, because “I think the situation is appalling.” But she has to work as part of the skeleton crew that will keep the health centre running.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) called for a “day of action and solidarity” Wednesday, which will involve a 24-hour strike in Spain and Portugal and three- and four-hour strikes in Greece and Italy, respectively.

Protests will also be held in the Czech Republic, France, Poland, Romania and Slovenia, and solidarity demonstrations are planned for Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the countries of Scandinavia.

Spain’s general strike, the second faced by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy since it took office 11 months ago, was announced in October by the two main union federations, Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), along with the Social Summit, which groups more than 150 civil society organisations.

After picking up groceries for her family at a food pantry, Tamara, a Málaga resident, tells IPS that she worked for years “caring for the elderly and as a cook in hotels. But I ended up without a job, and without benefits.” She lives with her two sons, ages 17 and 24. The younger son is still in school and the older son is unemployed.

Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the EU: 25 percent, and 50 percent among young people, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

Of the 25.7 million unemployed people in Europe today – 10.6 percent of the economically active population – 18.5 million are in the Eurozone, according to Eurostat figures.

All professions and trades have been affected by unemployment. Today, many engineers, traditionally a privileged class, find themselves without a job.

“I went from earning 100,000 dollars a year, working abroad in an international firm, to 60,000 in a company that hired me when I came to Spain five years ago…and now they laid me off,” aeronautic engineer Josué Escudero, who has two young children – ages three and seven – and an unemployed wife, tells IPS.

The difficulties in finding work have led to a surge in the number of self-employed workers, whose ranks were joined by 65,100 newly self-employed individuals in the third quarter of 2012 – the highest rate of growth recorded by INE since 2006.

“I left the company I worked for because I couldn’t stand the psychological mistreatment anymore, or the workload,” says Ali, a Russian woman who has lived in Spain for 14 years, and who worked for the past five years for a wholesale travel company. She is now working on setting up her own tourism-related business.

But small and medium companies and family businesses are suffering from the drop in consumption.

“The situation is really bad. I have never seen a crisis like this one,” says María, who founded a shoe company 32 years ago with her husband, which she still works in, along with her two children. They once had eight stores and 14 employees in Málaga, but they had to close four of the shops, and she is now worried that they will not be able to keep the last four open.

“If consumption isn’t functioning, we can’t function,” says María. She hasn’t taken a vacation in three years, and says she suffers from depression.

Things are not much different in neighbouring Portugal.

“Even though I never did it before, this time I’m going on strike,” Marisa Ribeiro, a young Portuguese woman who works in a transport company, tells IPS. “They already told me I’m losing my job in two months. What else can I do in the face of a future mortgaged by Mrs. Merkel?”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who visited Portugal this week, is seen as the architect of the increasingly unpopular austerity measures adopted in southern Europe.

Wednesday’s general strike, announced in September by Portugal’s largest trade union confederation, the Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses (CGTP), is expected to be an unprecedented success in terms of the number of unions and workers who will join it.

“Our family life has changed radically,” bricklayer João Pedro Nogueira, a married father of two, tells IPS. Two years ago, he paid less in taxes and had “a decent salary.” But his salary fell 22 percent, and his vacation and Christmas pay were eliminated.

“My old Opel is falling apart, but I can’t even think about changing cars. We used to be able to eat out for lunch on Sundays, but now that is an unthinkable extravagance,” he says.

Actually, his two daughters do eat meals outside the home – they eat breakfast in the school cafeteria, where some of the children are given meals. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back – he says he is fed up.

Among his work-mates there is “a great deal of fear now that the bosses can lay you off fairly easily,” he says, referring to labour reforms that made it easier to hire and fire employees. But he is determined to “stand up and be counted” on Wednesday, and plans to join the strike. “And if they fire me, I’ll emigrate to Brazil or Angola,” he says.

In Portugal, the workers who have been hit hardest by the crisis are public employees, “the victims of a brutal reduction in wages and the loss of their vacation and Christmas bonuses,” CGTP Secretary-General Armenio Carlos explains to IPS.

According to his estimates, “the buying power of these workers has fallen by 25 to 30 percent.” And the recession in Portugal is only expected to deepen next year.

* With reporting by Mario Queiroz in Lisbon.